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Wednesday, August 1, 2018

#IWSG: Pitfall Avoidance Advice

It’s the 8th Insecure Writer’s Support Group of the year. No worries, though, you can sign up any time by clicking on the link. We post on the first Wednesday of every month. Thanks to our host, Alex Cavanaugh, and our co-hosts this month: The awesome co-hosts for the August 1 posting of the IWSG are Erika Beebe,Sandra Hoover,Susan Gourley, and Lee Lowery!This month’s optional question is: What pitfalls would you warn other writers to avoid on their publication journey?I have a simple bit of advise, really. If you want to get published, it’s all about rewriting and editing. And when you're done with that, edit, edit, and edit some more. How many times, you ask? I probably went through my short story that I submitted to the IWSG Anthology short story contest about a 100 times. I'm serious! Each time I went through my story I found something new to change or correct, or something that could have been said better, or a weak verb to toss. Typos and misspellings will get you booted right off the bat, so if you want a publisher or reader to continue reading, you can't make rookie mistakes. And then polish your story until it's squeaky clean. Make a self-editing checklist. Better yet, Self-Editing for Fiction Writers is a goldmine. Use it and avoid the most basic pitfall; an unpolished manuscript. This is the process I went through to win the feature spot in Tick Tock: A Stitch in Crime!

38 comments:

100 times? Wow! That's serious dedication. And I couldn't agree more about how important editing is. I cringe thinking about all the embarrassing mistakes people might've seen in my own work if I didn't tweak 'em endlessly, haha!

That's incredible Gwen, but you're so right :) Words are so powerful and finding the right sequence and stronger substitutes for our initial drafts makes our work stronger and clearer. Congratulations on your piece in Tick Tock: A Stitch in Crime. I wish you the best and happy IWSG day :)

So true! And I agree, I love that Self Editing book. But ever since I've started using it I get annoyed every time I'm reading something from one of the big publishers and notice the author totally breaking the book's rules LOL.

Editing is so important. Like other commenters, I've often spent more time editing a piece than it took me to write it. Self-Editing for Fiction Writers is an excellent resource that has been on my bookshelf for years.

So many writers think they don't need any sort of editing, or dive into editing too soon after finishing a rough draft, instead of taking some time away to develop fresher eyes. Another mistake is writing by committee, following every single bit of advice or suggestion from every single CP, beta, or editor.